Grand Prix of Miami Report – Friday Report

Today was a very busy day for us, as for the first time we were running our brand new No.44 Cayman in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, in addition to the No.44 Porsche GT3 Cup in the Rolex Sportscar Series.

With two different programs and two different schedules going on, things ran really smoothly today. Our only hiccup was a minor mechanical problem in the morning’s first practice session in the Cayman, and that was fixed very easily. Bryan was solid in the car in our second practice session, putting the car fifth overall. Meanwhile, in the Rolex car, Craig was very fast in final practice and team hopes were high heading into the afternoon’s qualifying sessions.

This is where the complexities of running two different programs come into play. Because John is going to start both the Continental and Rolex Series races, he had to qualify both cars. Rolex Series practice was first, but was split into two sessions – one for the Daytona Prototypes, and the second for the GT class. Continental practice would follow, with GS going first and ST second. So, not only would John have to qualify both cars, he’d literally have to jump out of the GT car and jump into the GS car.

But, it proved to be not much of a problem. John put the Rolex Series car in tenth, got out, calmly walked to the Cayman, got in it, and put it 11^th overall on the starting grid. Not bad for a car making its debut – and definitely the highlight of the day, as this Cayman project has been ongoing for nine months and hasn’t been without its challenges. Our qualifying spot also made it the quickest Porsche in the field.

Unfortunately, in tech, Grand-Am removed us from the results because the Cayman failed the ride height test by 1/8 of an inch. The test pipe hit an exposed bolt towards the rear of the car, clearing 99% of the car but hitting on that one bolt, which means we have to start tomorrow’s race in last place. But, like our Rolex Series crew chief John Bedell says, “ride height is ride height.” However, the third-placed Audi also failed the ride-height test and has been allowed to keep their position. So perhaps, depending on your car, ride height isn’t ride height.

“This actually worked out better than I had expected,” said John. “My plan the entire time was to get to start next to Craig in his Cayman. As it turned out, he is going to have to start on the last row, and starting 11^th wouldn’t have played into those plans at all.”

Other highlights today included watching all of the Magnus Racing groupies get in the way of the yellow Mazda RX-8 pitted next to us. Patrick Dempsey had to keep walking around the assembled crowd, and he seemed annoyed, especially when they kept stopping him to take pictures.



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